


Best Laid Plans

by cordeliadelayne



Series: Plans [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Coffee date, F/M, starting something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 09:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7886374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lester and Abby attempt to get to know each other a little better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joereaves](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=joereaves).



> For joereaves who gave the prompt “Sunday mornings”. Set early in series 2.
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2009.

“Do you think they’ll ever make up?” Abby asked. “Stephen and Cutter, I mean.”

Lester looked up from the file he was reading and regarded the petite blonde who was looking out on to the atrium of the ARC. She’d had her back to him ever since she’d handed him the file, just staring out the window, not saying a word until now. A biting retort was on the tip of his tongue, but it had been a long day and his heart wasn’t really in it.

“A rather involved question for a Saturday night.” Truth be told he was also worried about the team dynamics – the last thing he wanted was one of this rag tag bunch of amateurs injured because they couldn’t get along. He’d never tell the team that their friendships were an asset to the Anomaly Project, of course, but he could allow himself to think that, late at night, before he drifted off to a fitful sleep.

“Sunday morning,” Abby responded, cutting through his abstracted musings. She turned around and indicated the clock on the wall. “It’s past one. Sunday morning.”

“Even more reason for me not to concern myself with the Professor’s personal life.”

Abby said nothing. She didn’t really want to get into an argument. She’d just thought that broaching the subject with Lester might be easier than talking it over with Connor, who only got sad and depressed when he saw Stephen and Cutter barely talking to each other. She knew why Cutter was upset, so was she, but everything seemed to be falling apart these days. She needed something to keep her mind off of it, but she wasn’t quite sure what that could be.

Lester studied Abby for a moment and then looked back down at the file in his hand, flicked to the last page and then signed it.

“Aren’t you going to read it through?” she asked.

“No need. Your reports are always up to standard, unlike those of your colleagues.”

Abby smiled a little. It was nice to hear some praise from Lester, even if it did contain a dig at her friends; it was an all too rare occurrence.

“You should go home. Get some sleep,” she suggested. For a man who spent most of his time behind a desk, he was certainly looking haggard.

Lester grimaced. “Not much of a home to go to, right now.”

Abby frowned and tried to think of something comforting to say. She didn’t really know anything about Lester. Whether he was married or had kids was a mystery to her, as was any life he may have had outside this steel and glass monstrosity.

“Maybe a coffee then?”

Lester looked up at her in unconcealed surprise, and then down at his desk. He still had some paperwork to sort through, but he could always pass that on to Leek. And he had to admit, if only to himself, that these long nights were starting to take a toll. Why not have coffee with an attractive young woman in the early hours of a Sunday morning?

“Very well,” he told her as he got up. “Here or…”

Abby smiled. “I’m not sure where else would be open.”

Lester nodded. “Yes, we are a little off the beaten track for Starbucks.”

They strolled down the walkway in companionable silence, both inwardly marvelling at how un-awkward this was. Lester’s eyes strayed over to Abby and he allowed himself a moment to wonder whether she too felt that this was approaching a date. Not that he’d had much experience with those lately. When she looked up at him with knowing eyes, he was certain.

“Ladies first,” he said politely as they went through the doors to the rec room.

Abby just fell short of rolling her eyes. “Thanks.”

The coffee pot was empty and as Lester fussed about with making a new one Abby dug around in the back of a cupboard, triumphantly pulling out a packet of unopened chocolate digestives.

“I saw one of the scientists hiding it in here on Friday,” she explained. “I’m surprised Connor hasn’t already scoffed the lot.”

Lester made a non-committal sound. The ARC’s resident geek was even more of a conundrum than Cutter.

Abby put some biscuits on a plate and sat on one of the sofa’s. She leaned back and tried to stifle a yawn – she didn’t want Lester to think that his company was boring her. Lester put cups, milk and sugar on the table and poured out the coffee, then sat opposite Abby.

“This is nice,” Abby said as she fixed the coffee just the way she liked it, and watched Lester do the same.

“Yes,” Lester agreed, taking a sip of his drink. They fell into silence, one that was laced with more awkwardness now that they were just sitting and staring at each other.

Abby laughed. “This is ridiculous.”

Lester gave her a rare smile of agreement. “We don’t really get to spend any time together, away from the others, do we?” He paused to take a deep breath. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

Abby beamed at him. She crossed her legs and made sure to brush her foot against his as she did so. “I’d like that too.”

“Perhaps over dinner…”

“Dinner would be good,” Abby replied. Lester was an unknown quantity; she liked that in a man.

“Barring any anomalies…” Lester began, only to have his words drowned out by the Anomaly Detector’s alarm.

Abby stood up with a sigh and started out of the room. “You just _had_ to curse it, didn’t you?”

Lester gazed up at the ceiling and wondered, not for the first time, what or whom he had pissed off to be lumbered with the anomalies in the first place.

“I’m going to hold you to dinner, you know,” Abby called over her shoulder, just as Connor came barrelling down the corridor from the opposite direction on his skateboard. He stared in open eyed confusion into the room Abby had just left and fell off in surprise when he spotted Lester, who positively grinned at him.

And Lester kept on grinning as he headed towards the Anomaly Detector, Cutter and the rest of his Merry Band. Perhaps working on a Sunday morning wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
